大象传媒

LIFE ON A FARM IN NORTH WALES DURING WORLD WAR TWO
MR RICHARD ELLIS/MRS EIRLYS HOWDEN
PENRHYN ESTATE BANGOR NORTH WALES

My father, Richard Ogwen Ellis, farmed Cochwillan farm near Bangor during the war. He was married to my mother, Gwen, daughter of a neighbouring farm. It was a beautiful part of the world, overlooking the Menai Straits and Anglesey with part of the Snowdonia range of mountains behind us.

I was born in 1937 so I do not remember an awful lot about the time. I hardly realised that there was a war being fought let alone what it was. We used to listen to the news while having our meals round the kitchen table; we had to be very quiet. There was a small table near the settle with a large grey radio on it. I used twiddle the knobs as there were many foreign stations on it, I was very fond of the music on radio Hiversum where ever that was.

My father worked hard on the farm as he had a herd of milking cows, a flock of sheep, some pigs and a large shire horse called Captain. He also grew potatoes, hay, barley, and corn. Someone from the ministry of agriculture inspected the farm. There were forms to fill and records to be kept. Everything had to be in order and the local policeman called regularly to inspect the place. Not much chance of black-market farming going on.

My father was one of the first farmers in North Wales to buy a tractor an orange Fordson Major which gave years of service and ended its days in a field on our next farm. It should have been a museum. I remember the day it first trundled into the farm yard, a blustery autumn day, I could not understand where all the noise was coming from as it had bits of heavy metal on the wheels. The threshing machine used to visit us each autumn that was a wonderful sight; lots of young farm workers shouting at the dogs and us children, as we were not allowed near the machinery.

We had a big surprise on Christmas day 1941 as my brother Noel was born, we were not expecting him! I did not know that my mother was pregnant, children were not told of such events in those days. I did not like the baby much but I got used to him later on. I had a sister called Enid, she was born in 1932. She and I were sent off to another farm to stay with an uncle and aunt and their two children and a few days after Noel arrived.

We took our Christmas present with us, Margaret and Joe, named after Princess Margaret and Joe Stalin. We hardly knew who these people were but the dolls were a great comfort when we were away from home. We used to look at the photos of the Royal family in the farmer and stockbreeder and in the Picture Post. It was probably a lot of propaganda but how were we to know? I forgot to mention that my father and many of our relatives were tenant farmers on the Penrhyn estate. Lord Penrhyn was our landlord. He was a generous man as he used to give us a large Christmas tree at our primary school at Landegai with a present for each child. It was an idyllic place to grow as the scenery was wonderful and were surrounded by many friends and neighbours.

Christmas was always special as we had plenty of food and my mother was a good housekeeper and cook. She made Christmas puddings, Bara Brith- Welsh tea bread, an iced cake and mince pies. This used to make me feel guilty when I got older and realised what war meant. I was glad my father did not have to fight as he contributed in his own way to the war effort.

My aunt Kitty was one of my mother鈥檚 sisters, came to live with us as my father鈥檚 Land Girl. She worked hard helping with the milking, cleaning the cowsheds, feeding the stock and harvest time. She learned to drive the tractor and the Austin 7 car. She used to take me to school in Llandegai but I would complain of toothache and she would bring me home again. I did not like my teacher as she would hit me across my fingers with the edge of a ruler for making mistakes.

I remember Aunty Kit鈥檚 brown jodhpurs, polished leggings and a green ribbed jersey. She would wear a brown felt hat on her head. It was fun having her living with us as she was very kind and we had lots of fun with her. She seemed to live a good social life as all sorts of people would gather in our kitchen, which was the focal part of the house. It had a large old-fashioned fireplace with an oven and boiler each side of the fire. It was cleaned with zebra black-lead polish every day.

When we were children we spoke Welsh at home and in the community. Early in the war a group of children were evacuated to our area from Liverpool. We had two boys and their mother living with us and in no time at all we were all speaking English. This was all before the fuss about the survival of the Welsh language that happened later on. There was a prisoner of war camp near Bangor, I never heard of any dramatic escapes but Italian, German prisoners would sometimes help out on the farm. They would arrive in a large army vehicle under the guard of personnel, All very secret army, I suppose my mother used to cook a meal for the prisoners and they would eat with us in the kitchen-I remember one German prisoner crying with my mother saying he did not like war either, he wanted to go home.

One German plane flew over Bangor and one person was killed when a bomb dropped near the High street. Another plane crashed in to the mountains behind us and there was a huge fire, I do not know what happened to the pilot and crew. Army commands used to train on the mountains and stay in a house nearby.

These are my views of World War Two, no doubt very different from the area of Pill in Somerset where I know live. I may have had a privileged background but I was taught well. My mother died in 1974. My father in 1986 and Aunty Kitty died about four years ago.

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